Lockhart Grey Financial Planning Ltd

Only two things in life are certain, death and taxes.

During 2006-2007 the Government collected £3.3 billion in inheritance tax revenue and projects £3.6 billion in revenue for 2007-2008.

Inheritance Tax has rapidly become a greedy and untimely tax on ordinary hard-working people who have done no more than follow normal prudent financial planning.

If you are single (or divorced) current UK legislation allows the first £312,000 (for the 2008/2009 Tax Year) of your estate to be free from Inheritance Tax, or £624,000 if you are married in a civil partnership or widowed (providing no previous gifts were made by the deceased spouse). With house prices continuing to rise, in five or ten years time, the value of your estate could have increased even more and may have risen above this tax threshold.

Whilst it is usually good news that your assets are growing in value, under current legislation the Inland Revenue could take a massive 40% of everything you leave over the threshold (known as the nil rate band). This means that the Inland Revenue may receive considerably more from your estate than you may realise and many people are not aware of what they can do to mitigate this.

No matter what your net worth is, it’s important to have a basic estate plan in place. This ensures that your family and financial goals are met after you die. An estate plan will have several elements such as having Wills and Enduring Power of Attorney.

We believe that this tax can be reduced with some easy, straightforward planning. Our Inheritance Tax Planning Service aims to look at ways to help you reduce this tax but retain control over your investments and estate.

There are several ways in which this can be done, however, as everyone’s situation is different, it can take considerable skill to identify the most appropriate solution for a particular set of circumstances and therefore specialist advice needs to be taken and we can do this for you.